7. imported keso de bola (from the Spanish queso de bola)
ball of Edam cheese usually with a red covering, a traditional Christmas food

8. macaroni salad, prepared with Lady’s Choice mayonnaise

Filipinos consider it stylish and classy to serve Western foods.

In recent years, carbonara (aka “white spaghetti”) has been in vogue for Christmas Day… And the pretentious insist it should be pasta carbonara on Christmas Day and traditional spaghetti with tomato sauce during New Year festivities.

* There’s a joke now that Christmas in the Philippines should be renamed Spaghetti Day because it’s become the national staple during the holidays… Everyone aims to to finish all the spaghetti on the 25th because otherwise the leftover will remain in the refrigerator for days. Throwing away food the way Westerners nonchalantly do after every meal, particularly during the holidays, is a habit that Filipinos have yet to develop.

9. fruit salad from the can, almost always with a mix of sweet condensed milk and cream, served in a glass dish